Skidmore College will be a smoke-free and tobacco-free campus, effective Jan. 1, 2019. Smoking and tobacco use — as well as the use of all e-cigarettes and vaping devices — will be prohibited throughout all Skidmore College property, including outdoor areas.

The Skidmore College community has again joined together to collect more than $13,000, 4,000 food items and over 1,000 school supplies and personal care items to support nonprofit organizations through the Skidmore Cares community service program.

Five years for the Freirich Business Plan Competition

March 22, 2015

Nineteen teams entered the first round of the Freirich Business Plan Competition.

More than 250 students and 150 businesses have entered the Kenneth A. Freirich Business
Plan Competition since Ken Freirich ’90 established it in 2010 as a way to encourage
Skidmore students to “follow their passions” with a transformational entrepreneurial
experience that could change their lives forever. In commemoration of its fifth anniversary,
the competition has broadened its scope to include artistic and social entrepreneurship.

Will the winner be Adirondack Flannel and its Saratoga Shirt? MyCity Brewing and its
Buffalo-brewed beer? A next-generation composting service? Or the novel that twin
sisters are writing about their great-great-grandmother's emigration from Russia to
Turkey after the Bolshevik Revolution?

After surviving the first round, eight student teams are now focused on the April
10 finals in the for-profit category, while an additional five are competing in a
new social entrepreneurship category created in commemoration of the competition’s
fifth anniversary.

For the fifth anniversary event, total cash prizes — with others contributing — will
set a record of $60,000, with in-kind legal and accounting services valued at over
$10,000. Freirich has put up $25,000 toward the prizes.

A record 19 teams made presentations in the first round, pitching their business plans
to a panel of nine successful alumni entrepreneurs and executives.

“We have never seen a larger or stronger field of contestants in this competition,”
notes Roy Rotheim, professor of economics and director of the competition. “All of
these initiatives are quintessentially Skidmore in their creativity, global reach,
and social consciousness.”

“It was an awesome fifth-year semifinal,” says Freirich. “The businesses and organizations
were as diverse as ever, and I am always amazed by the incredible amount of talent
and creativity among the students.”

Once the eight business and artistic finalists were selected, they were paired with
eight judges, who are now serving as the students’ mentors to help them prepare for
the finals.

For example, retailing expert Nancy Wekselbaum ’73, president of the Gracious Gourmet,
is counseling Jamie Benjamin ’17 and Leif Catania ’17 of Adirondack Flannel on their
plan to bring to market their vision of the “Saratoga Shirt,” a fashion hybrid that
combines classic style with the comfort of flannel.

And Andrew Eifler ’07, senior director for product management at AppNexus, will work
with twin sisters Övgu and Öyku Bozgeyik ’16 in developing their historical novel,
Call Me Myna.

Nic Platt '76, former corporate executive and current mayor of Harding Township, N.J.,
will advise Stella Langat '16 on developing Double Dee's into a successful producer of undergarments for women in her native Kenya;

Branding and advertising expert Sara Arnell '82, CEO and founder of the Karmic "social
goodness" mobile app and platform, will advise Elizabeth Worgan '16, David Florence
'16, Catherine Headrick '17, and Samuel Barback '17 on turning Allstolen Apparel into a successful maker of clothing that combines sportswear and high fashion;

Andrew Goetz '84, president of the Malin+Goetz chain of apothecaries, will advise
Jonah Epstein '16 on establishing MyCity Brew as a community-centered beer producer inspired by his native Buffalo, N.Y.;

Seth McEachron '04, cofounder and owner of Battenkill Valley Creamery, will advise
Adam Beek '15, Joshua Chacko '16, and Natalie Williams '15 on developing their MediBloom as a supplier of medical marijuana to the Canadian and international markets.

In the social entrepreneurship category, the finalists will be mentored by Freirich;
Catherine Hill, F. William Harder Professor of Business Administration, and the two
student co-directors of the this year’s Skidmore-Saratoga Consulting Partnership, Lauren
Alexander ’15 and Ezra Levy ’15. The finalists are:

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